{"id":19821,"date":"2017-02-17T01:48:14","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T01:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=19821"},"modified":"2017-02-17T01:48:14","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T01:48:14","slug":"leaks-are-real-news-is-fake-huh-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=19821","title":{"rendered":"‘Leaks are real, news is fake’ Huh? What?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I’m trying to digest the contents of Donald J. Trump’s press conference today.<\/p>\n

It’s upsetting my stomach.<\/p>\n

The president has declared all-out war on the media, which he calls “dishonest” and “fake.” The very men and women who cover the president’s statements and actions are told to their face that they are out to get the president, that they have an anti-Trump agenda.<\/p>\n

One of them asked Trump today about the leaks that have allowed information to pour out into the public. Trump’s response is utterly mind-boggling on its face: “The leaks are real. The news is fake.”<\/p>\n

I don’t even know what that means.<\/p>\n

My media activity these days is confined exclusively to this blog. I did spend nearly four decades covering and commenting on local and state governments in two states — first in Oregon and then in Texas. I didn’t have the honor of covering the White House or politics at the highest level imaginable.<\/p>\n

However, I do share a bit of empathy with the reporters who are doing their job in the face of withering attacks from the president of the United States.<\/p>\n

He should seek to use the media to his own advantage. The president has a message to deliver, or so I am presuming. He must rely on the media to deliver it to the public. Why, for heaven’s sake, does he insist on the ad hominem attacks on the media? Why does he insult the men and women sitting in front of him with labels such as “dishonest” and “fake”?<\/p>\n

This guy — the president — cannot remove himself from flat-out campaign mode. He used that tactic against his Republican Party primary opponents and then against the Democratic Party nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton.<\/p>\n

The media now have taken over the role political opponent.<\/p>\n

I think I am\u00a0picking up the scent of Steve Bannon, the White House senior strategist, who has called the media the “opposition party” and suggested that the media should keep quiet.<\/p>\n

The media are nothing of the kind. Nor should they keep quiet; the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the media’s right to pose probing questions of those in power.<\/p>\n

If only the president of the United States could demonstrate\u00a0an inkling of knowledge of the media’s role in a modern society.<\/p>\n\n

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I’m trying to digest the contents of Donald J. Trump’s press conference today. It’s upsetting my stomach. The president has declared all-out war on the media, which he calls “dishonest” and “fake.” The very men and women who cover the president’s statements and actions are told to their face that they are out to get … Continue reading ‘Leaks are real, news is fake’ Huh? What?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1424,1738,2858,3688,6673,5043,5248],"class_list":["post-19821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-first-amendment","tag-mainstream-media","tag-potus","tag-steve-bannon","tag-us-constitution","tag-white-house-press-corps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19823,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19821\/revisions\/19823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}